Google refutes bidding USD 10bn for WhatsApp

Google has reportedly denied rumours that it approached WhatsApp for an acquisition before Facebook grabbed it.

Senior Vice President in charge of Chrome, Android, and apps, Sundar Pichai said that it was 'simply untrue' that Google had offered to buy the popular messaging service.

It was rumoured that Google had offered a reported 10 billion dollars, almost half of Facebook's 19 billion dollars for WhatsApp, Cnet reports.

Although, there had not been any formal bid from Google, it doesn't necessarily mean that the search giant wasn't interested in a deal as media reports had earlier pointed that WhatsApp was asking Google for 1 billion dollars, while the messaging service formally denied this.

Meanwhile, another report had indicated that Google CEO Larry Page met with WhatsApp co-founder and CEO Jan Koum in an attempt to convince him not to hook up with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.